Snowstorm Closes Schools

Midwest cold front dumps 3-6 inches of snow on Loudoun.

Ashburn resident Bev Sheets liked the snow she shoveled off her driveway Friday morning, but her husband Dwain thought differently of the county’s first snowstorm of the season.

"I hate snow. I hate winter. I just hate to be cold," Dwain said. What he likes are the other seasons: spring, summer and fall.

Bev Sheets, who grew up in Miami, Fla., "loves the cold weather. When it first snows, it’s beautiful, but when the cars run over it … I’m ready for it to go," she said.

Not likely, according to the Farmer’s Almanac.

"Everything I’ve been hearing, they say it’s going to be a nasty winter," Dwain Sheets said. "The Farmer’s Almanac says we’re going to have some snowy weather this winter like last winter."

A midwestern cold front blew into the region Thursday night, leaving three to six inches of snow across Loudoun as snow fell from Thursday to Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. On Thursday morning, the NWS issued a storm watch for the county and switched it to a warning later in the day, lifting it on Saturday.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS closed Friday in response to the storm, a decision that was made at 4 a.m. that morning. "We just had too much snow," said Wayde Byard, public information officer, on Friday. "Last night was treacherous going home from the budget meeting."

The road conditions caused an increase in accidents during the storm. The Sheriff's Office responded to 94 accidents from 12 p.m. Friday to 12 p.m. Saturday, compared to 37 accidents the week before. The majority of the accidents involved property damage, most of them caused by vehicles losing control and sliding into guard rails and into ditches.

The Sheriff's Office handled another 152 calls regarding disabled vehicles, compared to 14 calls the week before. In one of the calls, a tractor trailer was disabled and blocking Route 659 at about 6:30 a.m. Friday. The Sheriff's Office closed the roadway from Route 7 to Stubble Road for one hour, along with Route 9 near the Route 7 intersection at about 9 a.m., an area with a steep incline that needed salting and sanding.

The most serious accident during the storm occurred at about 10 a.m. Friday. A head-on collision between two trucks on Route 15 near Oatlands caused serious injuries.

"Fortunately, we did not have too many serious accidents," said Kraig Troxell, public information officer for the Sheriff's Office. "The majority of accidents we did have, the drivers were driving too fast for the conditions. Across the board, the roads were treacherous."